Children’s Charity Announces New Chair


Posted on 02 December 2014
Her extensive experience in the charity sector, combined with her practical and academic research, will be invaluable to the future challenges and opportunities The Donna Louise faces.”

A professor at Keele University has been announced as the new Chair of the Board of Trustees at The Donna Louise Children’s Hospice.

Professor Sue Read has been a learning disability nurse since 1980 and is the Professor of Learning Disability Nursing at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Keele University.

Sue was born in Stoke-on-Trent and although she has travelled extensively with her work, she has never lived more than seven miles from where she was born.

Her 24 years’ experience with various charities first developed when she completed her PhD at the Bereavement Care counselling organisation in Hanley. Whilst Sue’s research interests have remained focussed around loss, death, dying and bereavement, she has always worked closely alongside people with a learning disability and their families.

She has been a Trustee at The Donna Louise for more than two years and is delighted to be appointed Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Sue said: “I am honoured to be appointed Chair of the Board of Trustees and I am really excited at the prospect of working with such a committed, dedicated and focused group of staff and Trustees who have established a Hospice that is so admired by the local people and has a national reputation for its work around supporting children, young people and families.”

Mike McDonald, Chief Executive of The Donna Louise, said: “I am thrilled to welcome Sue as our new Chair; she will be a tremendous influence on the development of the organisation. Her extensive experience in the charity sector, combined with her practical and academic research, will be invaluable to the future challenges and opportunities The Donna Louise faces.”